


Sing Your Heart Out Tobin

by Wolves_of_Innistrad



Category: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (TV)
Genre: Bisexual Male Character, Coming Out, Fluff, Inspired by Music, Kinda, M/M, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:28:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23813815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolves_of_Innistrad/pseuds/Wolves_of_Innistrad
Summary: Zoey really thought the Spell-iversarry was the last time she'd have to deal with Tobin singing sad Heart Songs to Leif, but then this had to happen.
Relationships: Tobin Batra/Leif Donnelly
Comments: 20
Kudos: 77





	Sing Your Heart Out Tobin

It’s almost Valentine’s day and Zoey has Had it with Heart Songs.

She falls in step beside Max, walking into the lobby and heading for the elevators. “If one more person sings a romantic sappy love song I swear I’m going to vomit.”

Max rolls his eyes and laughs, nudging her shoulder. “Oh come on, it’s sweet, love is a splendid thing. I mean, sure we didn’t work out, nor did me and the waitress, or actually. Hmm...” Max thinks for a moment before deciding to continue. “Okay, maybe you’re right, love does suck.”

“Exactly!” Zoey exclaims, throwing her hands up. At that moment she stares over at the coder pool, surprised everyone actually seems to be diligently working. Everyone except Tobin who is just staring at Leif from across the room. “Haaaaaaaave you noticed anything weird with Tobin lately?”

Tilting his head, Max glances towards Tobin before swinging his gaze back to Zoey. “Not anymore than usual. I mean, he almost cried when him and Leif’s Lego robot fell apart last week, but I don’t think that’s very odd for Tobin.”

Zoey purses her lips, staring at Tobin who is still staring at Leif. “I think maybe he and Leif are fighti-” she’s in the middle of talking when music starts up and she groans. “No! Not again, I refuse to hear another love song!”

Max looks around, unable to see or hear what’s happening. “Oh God, who is it? Please tell me it’s not Leif and Joan again. That was awkward enough last time and I didn’t even have to see it.”

“I can’t tell yet, I just hear guitar and piano, but someone is about to start singing and I’m about to start swinging.” Zoey puts her hands up like she’s going to fight and Max grabs them and pulls them back down to her side.

“Oh come on, no fisticuffs. Besides, love is beautiful, let’s just see who it is first and th-”

“Oh my God it’s Tobin.”

“Tobin?” Max says, staring at Tobin now who has turned back to his computer, looking sullen. “He’s just sitting there.”

“It’s Tobin he’s… He’s singing to a man?”

“A man?”

_“If I could tell him, tell him everything I see, if I could tell him, how he’s everything to me.”_ Tobin stands up slowly, each footstep in time with his words, his eyes never straying from his best friend sitting across from him. _“But we’re a million worlds apart,”_ he steps closer only to retreat, _“And I don’t know how I would even start.”_

“Oh no, oh no no no this is not happening. I think he's singing to Leif!” Zoey says, watching Tobin turn back to his desk, but she can tell this isn’t finished even as she frantically whispers to Max.

_“If I could tell him! If I could tell him!!!”_ Tobin stands back up from where he’d just sat, restless as his hand reaches out towards Leif. _“But what do you do when there’s this great divide?”_ He walks over again, in front of Leif’s desk, watching the man obliviously type out more code. As he turns his back, spinning around the desk he sings more lines _“He just seems so far away!”_

“Oh no, this isn’t just a love song, this is like, wistful, mourning. He’s Pining!” Zoey hisses.

_“And what do you do when the distance is too wide?”_ Tobin laments, finally reaching around the corner of the desk, standing behind Leif, hesitant. His face scrunched up in anguish as he lets his head fall into his hands. _“It’s like I don’t know anything. And how do you say...”_

 _“I love you.”_ Tobin places his hands on the back of Leif’s chair.

 _“I love youuuuu...”_ He leans to one side and sings into Leif’s ear.

 _“I love youuuuuuuuu.”_ His face finds the other ear and sings once more.

 _“I loooooooooove youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.”_ Tobin spins the chair around to sing right to Leif’s face, but the man has his head titled down staring at his tablet.

Zoey’s tearing up now watching this, her hand clasped over her mouth.

 _“But we’re a million worlds apart,”_ Tobin lilts as he steps back slowly, each movement like it’s being forced upon him, dragged away against his will. _“And I don’t know how I would even start.”_ He sits in his chair, eyes still glued to Leif even as he tries to turn away. _“if I could tell himmmmmm. If I could...”_ Tobin goes back to typing as the song fades away, his face devoid of the anguish it had just moments ago, but still looking sullen and conflicted.

When Zoey finally returns to earth she’s greeted by Max shaking her arm. “Tobin sang a Heart Song to Leif?!” he asks in a hushed, frantic whisper.

Zoey nods lamely, eyes flitting between the two coders. Watching more closely, it’s easy to see how often Tobin steals a glance back at his best friend, and while sometimes it’s a smile, there’s longing and sadness mixed in his expression.

“Oh no. How do I even deal with this?”

“Tobin likes dudes? Actually, that shouldn’t be that surprising he once told me ‘Zuck could get the succ’ and I thought he was just being his usual self but maybe he’s just really attracted to smart people...”

Zoey sighs, leading them around to her work station and taking a well deserved seat. “Well whatever it is, Tobin definitely has feelings for Leif.”

Max’s eyebrow rises on one side, his eyes darting over to Leif. “Have you heard anything from Leif’s side?”

Zoey follows Max’s eyes and shakes her head. “Not since he sang Baby Got Back when that intern from floor 3 came up here.”

“She did have back,” Max says wistfully, getting a smack in the arm. “What? She did!”

“You’re hopeless Max. Now go get to work, I have to think of how to deal with this awful development.”

“Hey! Love is love.”

Zoey rolls her eyes “I don't care if-” she lowers her voice “Tobin has a big nerd-boy crush on his best bro, I care that I have to deal with this and how in the world do I bring that up. ‘Hey Tobin, just wanted to see if you have any homoerotic one sided crushes on any of your best friends? No? Sorry to bother you.’”

  
  


Zoey spends almost the entire day avoiding Tobin and trying to think of a way to broach the subject. She manages to make it almost to the end of the day when she hears Leif clap Tobin on the back and congratulate him on winning that week of their fantasy sports league. And by fantasy she knows they actually mean Dungeons and Dragons.

Try as she might, she hears the telltale signs of music coming from behind her and she turns just as Tobin stands up and begins to dance. Except this time, Tobin has most of the other workers from their floor as backup dancers in what appears to be a big Bollywood style number.

She watches Tobin dance around, a stream of people behind him as he flits about, zigzagging through tables and chairs, trying to catch Leif’s attention.

 _“Teri-Meri jodi ko naa-mumkin todna,”_ Tobin sings, trying and failing to grab Leif’s hand. _“Jag chhoot jaave maine haath ni chhodna, vaada ae kardae gabru, pyaar bada karda gabru.”_ Tobin spins around, doing some very impressive moves that Zoey isn’t even sure she knows how to describe before landing on one knee, his shoulders and arms still shimmying as he looks up at Leif and sings _“Jeenda hai ik tere layi, tere utte mardae gabru.”_

Frankly she has no clue what he’s saying, but she’s at least thankful it’s more upbeat than the previous song that was almost mournful. By the time he’s finished even she feels exhausted, and she only watched as Tobin strutted his stuff around the entire floor with his cadre of backup dancers/coworkers.

“Okay, this is too much,” she says to herself, making a decision. She’s going to find a way to talk to Tobin about his increasingly ridiculous crush on his best friend if she has to just barrel through it headfirst.

  
  


She catches Tobin at lunch the next day, sliding up beside him at the re-instated cereal bar. “Heeeeey Tobin,” she starts, trying to play it cool in the least possible way.

“Heeeey Zoey,” he answers back, and it’s only a little teasing as opposed to what he might have been like a few months ago.

“So, I don’t wanna sound, like, racist or anything.”

“Oh this is going to be amazing!” Tobin’s eyes have went wild, clearly expecting good blackmail material, or at least something he can laugh at her about with Leif later.

“Anyway… I heard this song on TV last night, and I think it’s from a Bollywood movie, I wanted to know if you knew it?”

“I cannot WAIT to hear you mangle this.”

“I’m not going to sing it, but uh, it went kinda like?” Zoey mumble hums the song she heard Tobin himself singing yesterday. It takes a moment, but finally she sees recognition dawn on his face.

Tobin smiles, and if she didn’t know better she’d think that he might even be blushing. “It’s, uh yeah I know that song. But how did you hear it on TV?”

“My cable company gave me some international package for free since they messed up my bill last month-”

“That doesn’t sound true at al-”

“Anyway do you know what song it is?”

“Yeah, uh, I can just like, send you a link on YouTube. I’m absolutely sure you aren’t going to remember the name if I just tell you. No offense.”

“None taken.” Zoey waits a minute and decides to just barge in and make a fool of herself. That seems to usually work out in the end. “Also I did want to ask you one other thing.”

“If it’s how to be this fly, then I'm sorry I can’t help you. That’s au naturale,” he says, slicking down his eyebrows and lining his jaw with his fingertips.

Zoey rolls her eyes. “Actually I wanted to know if everything is okay with you and Leif? Are you fighting or anything?”

Instantly Tobin’s entire demeanor changes. His eyes go wide before getting small and almost shifty. “What, no, we’re fine. Nothing is wrong with my bro. Unless you heard something, has he said something to you? Was it about me?”

“Slow down Dale Earnhardt.”

“I’m not white enough to understand that joke.” Tobin smirks though, so she suspects he absolutely did and just wants to be snarky.

“It’s nothing he said it’s more just. It seems like every time I look over you’re, uh, staring at him?” She watches as Tobin seems to cringe, trying to school his features away from the total shock she finds there. “So I thought something might be wrong, like last year with the Spell-iversarry thing and as your manager I didn’t want anything to impact your work… And as your, friend? I didn’t want you to be having any problems.”

It takes Tobin a minute to collect his thoughts, opening his mouth a few times to say something before snapping it back closed. “Why are you so interested in where I’m staring? Not that I’m admitting I was staring at anyone, because I wasn’t. I totally wasn’t doing that.”

Zoey really doesn’t have time to deal with this denial so she just takes her hand and places it over Tobin’s “Listen, tell me, don’t tell me, I don’t really care. You’re right it’s not my business, but,” she gives his hand a little squeeze, “if you do ever need someone to talk. Someone to listen? Just know I’m here, and anything you say can just be between us.”

She’s about to leave, turning on her heel, telling herself she’s done what she can to fix this Heart Song situation when Tobin grabs her by the wrist and nearly drags her away from the table.

“Not here,” he hisses, staring around to see if they are being watched before leading them to the men’s restroom and pushing her inside.

“Uh, this is the men’s bathroom isn’t it? I’m not supposed to be in here...”

Tobin scoffs, “like we feel threatened of you. Anyway...” He pauses, taking a deep breath before turning to the mirror, gazing at his own reflection. “If I tell you something Zoey, will you promise it’s just between us?”

“Cross my heart,” Zoey says, miming the motion.

“And hope to die?”

“I’m not saying that part.”

“Fair enough.” Tobin shrugs, taking off his hat and wringing it in his hands. “Zoey, have you ever liked someone, and like, you know you shouldn’t, and that they don’t feel the same, but you like can’t help it? Like you know there’s all these reasons it can never work and you shouldn’t want them and still.. Still your heart like, hurts when you see them?”

“I actually know exactly what that’s like.” Memories of last year and the disastrous Simon ordeal swim through her mind before she brushes it away.

“And what did you do about it?” He turns to her now, and he looks just as small and scared as he did when he was singing the first Heart Song from the other day.

Zoey laughs, a bitter sound, shaking her head. “About every possible wrong move you could make, up to and including nearly burning down his house during his...” She cuts herself off. “Regardless, sometimes it isn’t as hopeless as we think.”

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s gonna be my case. I mean, it won’t be as bad as whatever you did, but it’ll be bad.”

Ignoring that slight Zoey takes a step forward and touches his shoulder, trying to offer some comfort. “Have you told h-them how you feel?”

“No. That’s not happening.”

“Why not?”

“Because he-” Tobin slams a hand over his mouth, eyes going wild and frantic. “I...”

Zoey tries to make herself look a tiny bit surprised. “Tobin, you know it’s fine if you like a guy right?”

“It really isn’t. I’m not, like, a bromosexual or nothing.”

“Tobin…”

Tobin turns back to the mirror again, only able to look at Zoey that way as he starts to speak, his voice a bit strained. “Zoey… I think I might be a little bi. Maybe.”

“That’s okay Tobin. There’s nothing wrong with that. Trust me, my friend Mo is actu-”

“Enough about your friend what about me?! You have no idea what my parents would say. Or my friends? I’ve only ever been into girls. I mean except for like, you know Oscar Isaac or Salman Khan. Everyone would go a little gay for them. And maybe Chris Evans. And Idris Elba. Oh and John Abraham. Wait, fuck...”

Zoey bites back a smile.

“Oh fuck… Am I _really_ into dudes? Oh, this puts that embarrassing hero worship thing I had for my programming teacher in High School into perspective...”

“See, it’s normal. There’s nothing to be ashamed of for liking men and women Tobin.”

“Even if that’s true, it doesn’t mean that who I like… That he, wow it’s weird saying that out loud,” Tobin gives a shaky little laugh, “it doesn’t mean he likes me back.”

“You’ll never know until you try. And I can’t imagine it can hurt any worse than not knowing and just sitting here… Pining.”

“I’m not pining.”

“You’re definitely pining.”

“I’m not pining...” He pouts, folding his arms in front of himself defensively.

“Just tell him.”

“But what if it ruins our friendship?”

“Listen, as someone who has been the one that had their friend tell them they had feelings for them, I’m not going to lie and say it wasn’t super awkward.”

“Thanks...”

“But!” she interjects, “in the end it worked out. Even if he doesn’t feel the same way you do, if he’s really your friend you’ll get over it and it’ll just be something to laugh about later on once you’re over it. It might take some time, but, you never know, maybe he feels the same way.”

“I’m pretty sure he’s more into milfs.”

“I...”

“I’ve seen his Pornhub account before, it’s pretty single target.”

“Tobin...”

“Like, almost disturbingly mono focus. Who doesn’t like a little variety in their porn, really?”

“Stay focused Tobin. Listen, you don’t have to take my advice, but I think you should tell him. You never know what might happen.”

“Disaster of apocalyptic proportions. Millions dead like the Corrupted Blood Incident in WoW”

“If you need anything let me know. Just, try to think positively alright?” Then she leans in and, before Tobin can reject it, she gives him a big hug. For a moment he stills, but then he hugs her back, albeit halfheartedly.

“Thanks Zoey.”

“No problem Tobin.”

“Tell anyone about this and I’ll put a trojan on your computer.”

“Bold of you to assume you could.”

Tobin laughs, she lets go, and then they go back to normal. Or as normal as things can ever get for Zoey.

  
  


Over the next few days she doesn’t hear any more heart songs, and it doesn’t seem like things are any different until she walks in on Leif and Tobin in the midst of a huge argument.

“What’s going on?”

“Leif and Tobin are having a very heated conversation about whether Steve Jobs or Bill Gates would be a better person to have on your startup team.” Max mimes eating popcorn as they watch them get up in each other’s faces.

Then, just as she thinks it might come to blows, music fucking starts.

“Not again...” Zoey laments, hanging her head.

 _“I need a man to talk dirty to me in HTML code,”_ Tobin sings and Zoey thinks this might be it, she might actually die from embarrassment.

 _“I need a man to sit on my laptop and open my download”_ Tobin continues, sitting in his chair and making a weird chopping motion towards his crotch. _“I don't need Grindr, I need a nerd finder. You think you know 'bout me, well forget what you heard. I want a sexy nerd. Them other boys on my list, but you know they ain't first. I want a sexy nerd.”_ Tobin is gyrating around in his seat, giving seductive eyes to Leif now, and weirdly his usually faux confidence and swagger actually fit with this song at least.

It’s jarring and fitting at the same time, and Zoey’s about to feel sorry for Tobin having to sing another song when she hears Leif start to sing and her jaw drops.

He busts up off his chair singing the same thing Tobin just had. _“You think you know 'bout me, well forget what you heard. I want a sexy nerd. Them other boys on my list, but you know they ain't first. I want a sexy nerd.”_

Zoey covers her eyes as she watches Leif strut over to Tobin, singing, or more like rapping the entire time. _“I be sexy strippin', while he be Java Scriptin',”_ Leif raps, pulling off his tie and using it to drag Tobin’s head closer to him before he sits in his lap. _“We can read science fiction, while we make science friction,”_ Then he grinds down on Tobin as he keeps going. _“I'll be working your shaft while you be playing World of Warcraft.”_

Then both Tobin and Leif are dueting as they both continue the song. _“We can get our freak on, In the bathroom at Comic Con.”_

“I can’t do this,” Zoey says, trying to ignore this song entirely as she runs to her desk.

Even her best attempts at ignoring them don’t save her from hearing Leif sing _“I'll plug in my USB. Then you can do me”_ or Tobin responding with _“Watch you come alive, while I rub off on your hard drive.”_

Finally, mercifully, the song ends and Zoey decides there’s not enough brain bleach to wash away the image of Leif and Tobin grinding on one another while tossing scandalous nerd jokes at one another.

  
  


Of course, that’s not nearly as bad as the next week when she walks in on them, pants around their ankles, in flagrante delicto over Tobin’s desk after hours. “I forgot my purse...” She says before running for the hills.

“Thanks for everything Zoey!” Tobin calls from his spot behind Leif and she hears them both laughing their heads off before she gets to the safety of the elevator.

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be a drabble, idk what happened. 
> 
> Shout out to Bamfbuddie and theklancecollection from the Buddie Discord for helping me find a good Bollywood song and translation for the short snippet. 
> 
> Songs are If I could Tell Her from Dear Evan Hansen (I changed the lyrics fight me), Pyar Tenu Karda Gabru from Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, and Sexy Nerd by Johnny McGovern.


End file.
